No Prisoners, No MercyHost: Julie Whitefeather & Frances KosacThere comes a time, friends, when your favorite MMO ceases to sparkle, when even new videogames lose their luster, and the computer room becomes a prison; and all that is left are two gamers (who happen to be nuns) with a very large axe to grind. Come join Julie Whitefeather and Frances Kosac as they go to War - and along the way discuss the events of the week in the MMO industry.

This week the game development community meets the blogging community in a round table discussion. Fran and Julie welcome R.W. Harper from Lorewriter.com, Saylah from Mystic Worlds, Tipa from West Karana and Syp from Bio Break for a discussion on immersion in video games. We hope you enjoy the show as much as we did producing it~

'Time To Penis.' by ChecksixSubmitted on 2010-03-02 18:43:24 CSTI think the reason most games don't allow anyone to drop things on the ground any more is because of the "Time to Penis" metric.

That metric measures how long it will take a user to create a giant phallus in the middle of time square if a user can customize the landscape, his character or any other part of the game.

Sad but true: dick and fart jokes have the exact same target audience as most MMOs these days.

PS: Enjoyed the podcast.

'heh' by TokenSubmitted on 2010-03-02 22:49:34 CSTGood show as usual , Tipa was vey interesting, Harper is a hack ( i'm convinced)

'Generic Post Title' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-03 14:24:38 CST@Checksix:
I have never heard of the "time to penis" metric. However I have noted the abundance of dead taurens and trolls in World of Warcraft spelling out the names of gold seller web sites. So far the best way to avoid the crowd that finds profundity in profuse scatalogical humor is to simply turn off the general chat channel. Every game I play has a "guild only " chat tab.

@ Token:
As far as hacks are concerned I am still trying to discern the application of the term here. Are you saying that R.W. has a dry cough? I didn't notice it but the reason each show takes so long to edit is because of dry coughs, ums, ers, and youknows. I suppose you could mean that he is able to hack in to computer programs - seeing as he is such a multitalented individual, has been a coder, and is a published author that is indeed a very real possibility. It can't be that a claim that he isn't a professional because he is already near the top in his field, inasmuch as he is a senior producer for a major video game company. It's tough to get industry professionals on the show, let alone have one ask to be produce one of your shows...show 54 was R.W.'s Idea.

Yes, Tipa and Saylah are always entertaining. In fact they will return for show 56 (already recorded). Show 55 (being edited) features the community managers for Funcom talking about some of their future projects.

'lol' by TokenSubmitted on 2010-03-03 14:52:38 CSTI'm not really calling him a hack professionally, I'm sure he's very accomplished, I just think he always sounds like a hack on the podcast. He talks with such gravitas, as if he has a unique perspective, but the content of what he says is the same stuff I hear from any other fanboy podcaster, he should just be introduced as Richard or whatever his first name is. Maybe that's a compliment to fanboy podcasters.

'Falic Symbols Won't Last Long...' by SaylahSubmitted on 2010-03-04 13:46:39 CSTSure there would be players who wasted time making vulgar objects with this feature. But as I mentioned, the feature has existed in other games without such issues.

Regardless of who drops the object, any player can pick it up. So if drop-enabled objects are restricted it to gold, consumables and gear, people are less likely to waste these items in that manner. And even if they do, someone else will pick the items up quickly for use or to vendor it for gold. So really, the problem you describe won't last very long. :-)

I don't get the whole "hack" comment either. To me he comes across as someone who is a gamer and also a developer. *shrug* If it's just how he's referred then well, not much he can do about that for ya. I know several men that actually go by their first two initials and not their first name. One of my closest male friends in fact. Sure I could call they guy Jeff but we all call him JB.

Thanks for having me on the show. It was great fun as always.

'@Saylah' by ChecksixSubmitted on 2010-03-04 18:38:24 CSTYou totally underestimate the POWER of the DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE!

Pee pee and poot poot jokes never get old. Never. And it only has to happen long enough to some one to get a good screen shot and post it on the internet for your game to forever be knows as "World of Phallus" online.

No one wants their hard work to be forever associated with a base joke like that.

'Might I also point out...' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-04 21:04:30 CSTWe have received compliments on the shows we have had with professional game developers. One thing that some of our listeners may not appreciate is how incredibly hard it is to get some game developers to communicate with the gameing community. Many Triple AAA developers just don't give a damn until they are down on their luck (read audience). While R.W. cannot represent his company in any official capacity, he is one of those rare individuals who not only is anxious to communicate, but helps the community more then they will ever know.

'Yep' by JmoSubmitted on 2010-03-05 03:02:12 CSTI agree with Julie for sure on this one. R. W. Harper is a stand up guy and an asset to the MMO gaming community. =)

'undies' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-12 02:32:08 CSTWell Token my friend, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the show has been doing such a good job lately that the show hasn't been flamed in a long, long time - just compliments, and a few grumpy comments aimed at one or two guests. But no outright flames. Maybe one day.

Julie

'Flame Proof Undies' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-12 15:54:09 CST@Token: Your wish has been granted. Read the article over at www.noprisonersnomercy.com for March 12, 2010.

Julie

'flames' by TokenSubmitted on 2010-03-15 18:12:19 CSTIf you get Gabe on the show I could flame him about the rumoured Steam support for crApple. He's a good bloke though, I buy all my games on Steam.

If so, since you are no doubt on a first name basis with Mr. Newell, feel free to secure the interview. I will certainly say I agree with his views on DRM as presented in a recent article over at Arstechnica (mentioned in our article above).

However...the next three shows feature both prominent members of the mmo blogging community and guests from Cryptic Studios.

Julie

'yo' by TokenSubmitted on 2010-03-16 18:38:01 CSTYes it was a high quality blog post. I might talk a load of crap but your show is still one of the only ones worth downloading so just remember that.

gaben@valvesoftware.com

'Show 56' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-22 19:12:37 CSTI am sure that our host Brent will get to the Itunes push of show 55 soon. In the mean time you can still find the early release of show 55 via the link on our website.

And now you can listen to show 56 as well.

Julie

'Booo on Brent' by BurntSushiSubmitted on 2010-03-23 07:09:36 CSTI think that it is really piss poor that Brent can't get most shows out on time unless, you are chums with him, ala Shut Up We're Talking, Massively etc etc. Seems those that are within the inner Brent fanboy circle get priority.

I really think that any active podcasters should leave VW and finally let it die.

I believe that Beau probably left for this reason and created his own MMO community or so he could go on his massive power trips lol.

But anyways ladies. You should really get control of your own uploading to iTunes and other podcast sites, so you don't have to deal with this. I came on here because I thought that you gals just podfaded. Good to know that you have not.

Well as far as Brent is concerned, let me say that being able to put "part of the Virgin Worlds Collective" still means something, but thanks for the kind words.

We have not podfaded at all, in fact still record shows every week.

What then, you might asks, takes longer than a week to put out a show? I'm glad you asked. Every show takes about 15 to 20 hours to edit, and more to schedule. Often shows with industry guests get schedule 1 to 2 weeks (or more) in advance. I am sure you have noticed the prevalence of industry guests on the show of late. Believe me, before continuing to put as many hours into producing the show each week that we do I talked to a friend who is a senior producer in the game development industry. His suggestion was that I continue to put the time that I do into each show to keep the professionalism in each podcast.

We have, as I am sure you have notice (or maybe not) been putting our shows on "early release" on podbean. The link is on our web site www.noprisonersnomercy.com. We do have plans for doing our own push out to the Itunes...we just have to actually sit down and figure out the mechanics of it.

We even have a very clever name for the new editions of the show.

Show 57 is being edited now with guest Mr. Joe Blancato, Marketing specialist from Cryptic Studios. We also have another recording session scheduled for tommorow with another industry professional but we have to wait and see if that works out.

We are still going strong. Our "early releases" our on podbean. Yes, Brent must be busy, shows 55 and 56 haven't been posted yet.

'Holy Ballz' by TokenSubmitted on 2010-03-23 21:36:49 CSTWell I have travelled into the future and listened to shows that you haven't made yet. You will conduct a fantastic interview with Funcom, hopefully these guys stay in touch. Sister Francis will bring a wonderful 'my mum is interviewing game developers' quality that is totally unique in games journalism. You will play the same songs a bit too much but that's okay because you have Tipa on as a great guest. In a shock twist Saylah will out herself as Jenny McCarthy.

'Time travel' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-23 22:03:34 CSTThe gents at funcom (show 55) were loads of fun. Unfortunately one community manager had to be left on the cutting room floor as even the hours upon hours of editing we put into production couldn't restore the bad connection (all three gents were in Europe obviously). I wasn't aware of Saylah being Jenny McCarthy, and to tell the truth I'm not even sure how that works. I am assuming it's part of this time loop you find yourself in - perhaps you where hit by a tetryon ray of some sort?

Sister Frances "my mum in interviewing game developers"? I will have to take your word on that one. I can only comment that you should see her "off microphone". As we all do, she has her moments both good and bad.

I am glad, however, that you found your way into our early release time warp.

'Same Music' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-23 22:06:45 CSTBy the way, by "same music" I assume you are referring to the musical seques we use. Do you mean the same genre or actually the same cuts. While we tend to reuse the sequest from show to show as they take a bit of time to produce - I am sure you have noticed that most of the seques tend to be three to four parts of the song all jamed together in a manner that flows smoothly and in some cases with a second song stuck on top of it.

Julie

'------------------' by TokenSubmitted on 2010-03-23 23:04:23 CSTI don't know, more interlude jingles are needed I guess. Jeremy Williams performed about 30. If you get a divorce, hopefully you will publish the rss as I prefer Google Reader over itunes.

'Huh?' by JulieSubmitted on 2010-03-23 23:09:06 CSTGet a divorce? Huh? And who is Jeremy Williams?

'@Julie in reference to Time Travel.' by BurntSushiSubmitted on 2010-03-24 02:18:11 CSTYou know as well as I and you should being a Trekker, that it is not Tetryon particles that effect space time but rather Chroniton particles. For shame Julie. I thought that your Klingon blood ran purer than that.